The film ‘Hey Hey Its Esther Blueburger’ is another Australian film that focuses on adolescence and the search for identity. The film charts the twists and turns in the journey of Daniella Catanzariti who plays Esther, a quirky, insecure thirteen year old Jewish girl.
Esther is a restless, unhappy spirit at the film’s start. She can’t stand the private school she is going to, and is excluded by the others. A girl with a strong will and plenty of chutzpah, she feels its time to make a move! During her bat mitzvah party she escapes and befriends a cool girl called Sunni (Keisha Castle-Hughes). Sunni is everything that Esther wants to be. Esther decides to go AWOL from her family home and spends a lot of time with Sunni and her hip biker mother Mary (Toni Collette). She also changes school, without telling her parents, and goes with Sunni to attend her public school, pretending to be a Swedish exchange student.
‘Hey Hey It’s Esther Blueburger’ is the work of first time writer/director Cathy Randall and first time producer Miriam Stein. It shows. They don’t quite pull it off. There are strengths; the film is entertaining, the pace is good, the soundtrack catchy, and the performances are satisfying, I loved the warm, Jewish cultural feeling to it. The main weakness brings down the film. I don’t feel they got the main character right. The main character Esther just isn’t likable or appealing enough, she comes across as being a bit on the nose, the way she belittles other students. The broad brushstroke way that public and private schools were portrayed didn’t convince either.
